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Sunday, April 5, 2009

The weekend

Once one knows the name of her daughter's orphanage, a whole community of people who have connections there starts to emerge. What I am hearing is that it is a good orphanage where the children are generally healthy and bright. Several people have told me that I will find out later that she is in foster care-- either with a family, or with one of the older folks that lives in the "orphanage" that houses the elderly as well. We are hoping for that.

Believe it or not-- this is true-- yesterday morning I took Miranda for a walk and one block away from our house I ran into a woman with her 5 year old daughter who was adopted from Jiangxi Province! I whipped out my picture, saying, "Hello! I just got a referral from China last night!" and she was delighted for us.

I found growth charts for Chinese girls, and it looks like Phoebe is right on target at about the 25th%ile for height, weight, and head circumference.

Miranda was giggling with excitement on our way out the door to pick up our referral picture, shouting "Mei mei! Phoebe!" but I think that was more a response to my wired state than an understanding of what was about to happen. When we got there, she took a cursory look at the photo itself and since then hasn't shown much interest. She is carrying around her Asian baby doll (named Mei Mei) quite a bit lately, and her favorite bedtime books are "Red Blanket" and "My Mei Mei," both stories about adoption from China. But this is still a child who speaks just one word at a time (out? sit? juice? daddy? up? eat?). I think she can't possibly understand that we are talking about a playdate that lasts for a lifetime. A sister. Maybe in another two months, as she hits her 2nd birthday, she'll understand more. I ordered "Big Bird in China" for her today, and I'm hoping that somehow she'll understand the words "Mama and Daddy are in China. They are picking up your baby sister Phoebe."

We are working on translation of Phoebe's name, as we had planned to keep part of it as her middle name. Ling is the surname of all the children from the Shangrao orphanage, so not something unique to her. Qian means lead. As the element #82 on the period table. Not a common name, and a Chinese friend told us, "I'm a little confused by that." And Yang means fluttering or blazing. Not sure what we are going to do.

We've had such an outpouring of congratulations! Thank you ! I can't stop looking at her little picture.

6 comments:

  1. Now they need their "Jie Jie" and "Mei Mei" gear. Congratulations! She's beautiful!

    http://www.cafepress.com/jiejiestore
    http://www.cafepress.com/meimeistore

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  2. She is adorable. I'm anxiously reading your journey. Congratulations!!

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  3. Could her name have been "Hot Shot" (blazing lead)? A good story for her teen years, anyway...
    Congratulations and Best Wishes!
    Maria from Ohio

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  4. :) I just stumbled onto your blog. We, too, have a Ling daughter. We've been home for a year now - actually we left Jiangxi on February 29 last year - leap day! Congratulations!

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  5. Well, I don't know about "Fluttering Lead" for a middle name, but I do think that this translation leads us towards one distinct conclusion for a possible future nickname: lead neither flutters, nor floats nor flies nor any other such action, but we all know that Phoebe is going to be a wonderful addition to the family and an amazing person, and could indeed flutter and fly...

    therefore...

    Led Zeppelin.

    http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_did_Led_Zeppelin_get_their_name
    Anyone?

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  6. Congrats! I am so very excited for you. I have a Rao baby. Our daughter's Chinese name is Qin Yang which is very similar to Phoebe's Chinese name. We actually kept her name but removed the space. I am also part of the Shangrao Yahoo Group and that is where I found your blog. Gotcha day for us was January 4, 2009. Nanchang was the best part of the trip in my eyes. I can't wait to follow your journey in China. Please feel free to stop by my blog and read about our trip to China and if you have any questions, please let me know. Congrats again.
    Deanna

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